Tips for Restoring Old Photographs

If you have old photographs at home that are on the verge of deterioration they need to be given a new lease of life for it is indeed important to preserve the treasured moments in time. Looking at one’s ancestors and genealogy tree is in itself a great experience for the coming generations. So, here are a few tips for restoring the golden old photos straight out of grandpa’s box.

Digitizing photographs and restoring of old photographs is not a very difficult process though one cannot deny the skills and expertise of a professional photo editor. We can do photo editing at home ourselves, if we have a computer, scanner and graphics software and of course the patience require for it. This is how to go about it.

First remove dirt or spots on photos gently with a soft brush. Pressured air can also be used to push away dust and lint from photo slides.

Clean scanner glass with a lint free pad. To avoid leaving any sort of patches on the photo a glove is recommended while cleaning.

Choose the resolution of scan depending on the type of usage. A minimal 300dpi (dots per inch) is needed for getting good quality resolution. Do consider the storage space while choosing the resolution as more resolution means more data to save.

Position photo face down and recheck for dust freeness, and alignment using the preview feature in the scanner. Besides cropping non photo areas of the photo one need do no corrections now. Cropping of the actual photo can be done later on of necessary.

Scan the photograph in color. (even if the photo is in black and white)

Store photo onto the hard disk as TIFF or JPG image file. JPG is recommended only when there is a shortage of space in your computer.

The original photo should never be edited but saved as archive copy. Make copies of the original and save as different file name.

Choose any good midrange photo editing software and get ready for editing.

Open the editing software and start work on a copy of the original digital image.

Crop photo as required with the crop tool

Remove red eyes if any.

Remove scratches, spots, tears or creases using different tools like smudge, cloning tool, paint tool, and the lasso selection tool.

Make color, brightness and contrast changes as required. This area of editing is left to your imagination. One can give antique look to photos by using the Sepia-tones.

Colorization is an art in itself. Repeat the process till satisfied

Add captions to photo if required

Choose appropriate vignette, borders for your photographs. Do experiment with different available choices and finally select what you feel is best suited for your photograph.

About Rajeev R

Manages the day-to-day operations of MOS from NY. With an interest in information technology, Rajeev has guided MOS to extensive use of digital technology and the internet that benefits MOS as well as MOS clients.
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